Kingman team joins One Run for Boston relay

Julee Lynch didn’t let injuries keep her from participating in the One Run for Boston nationwide relay race. Her teammates pushed the co-owner of Wash Me Car Wash in her temporary wheelchair for eight miles. (Courtesy)

KINGMAN - Four women from Kingman and one from Phoenix did their part in One Run for Boston, a nonstop, 3,300-mile relay race from Santa Monica, Calif., to Boston. The race was organized to pay tribute to and raise funds for survivors of last year's Boston Marathon bombings.

The race began March 16 and will end April 13 - two days shy of last year's horrific incidents of terror that killed three and injured more than 260, many of whom sustained grievous injuries, including the loss of limbs.

Two brothers allegedly built and detonated two pressure cooker bombs. One was later killed in a shootout with police and the other awaits trial.

The bombings did not dampen the running community's passion for the sport or their commitment to each other, according to Shanna Rodenbaugh, one of the key runners from the Kingman contingent, which ran 18 miles on Route 60 near Wickenburg between Wendon and Aguila.

Last year's inaugural One Run for Boston, organized just weeks after the April 15 bombing, raised $91,000 to assist the survivors.

The goal this year is to raise $1 million. As of last week, organizers were nearly 25 percent of the way there, with more than $225,000 pledged.

Rodenbaugh, Julee Lynch, Jo-Ann Schoch, Karen Padron - who is Shanna's mom and a nurse in Phoenix - and Erin Gordon made up the Kingman team.

As a group, they had this to say about the race:

"We (ran) because we wanted to show support for the Boston Marathon bombing victims and their families, and the running community."

Rodenbaugh ran in the event last year, when the route came through Kingman, and while she's considered the busiest athlete on the team, all of these women are serious runners.

They've all ran in half marathons in the past and they are all avid trail runners.

"We were drawn to help the people of Boston," said Rodenbaugh.

"The biggest casualty is if we forget them," said Lynch, who along with her husband owns Wash Me Car Wash on Stockton Hill Road.

Lynch was afraid she was going to miss the run. She was in a serious accident on Highway 68 in Golden Valley Christmas Eve and is still recovering.

"We pushed her in her wheelchair," said Schoch.

The women were responsible for two stages of the race. Rodenbaugh ran the first one alone. She finished the 10-mile stretch in 86 minutes and then ran with the others for the next stage, which was 8 miles.

"They pushed me all the way," said Lynch. Race organizers dedicated Section 38 to Lynch, and Kate Treleaven, one of the race organizers, ran the section with the women.

"It was very emotional," said Schoch.

Treleaven and co-organizers Danny Bent and James Hay, all from England, organized the One Run for Boston race.

The racers are being tracked thanks to the GPS-outfitted baton that is passed from one stage to the next.